But being here and seeing all this, Stelle couldn't help but wonder.
What had Phainon had felt, when he saw another version of himself looking at him with hatred, standing on the opposing side alongside those familiar companions?
Surely... It couldn't have felt good. Stelle instinctively imagined herself becoming someone who had no choice but to mercilessly kill her own companions.
If another version of herself, March 7th, and Dan Heng stood before her and looked at her with those kinds of eyes... Just empathizing with it for a moment made her heart ache, and she couldn't bear to imagine any further.
After experiencing so much and seeing so much, Stelle had also come to understand the connection between the Flame Reaver and the countless Phainons. That made her instinctively feel even more strongly that the Flame Reaver couldn't possibly be as numb as he appeared.
After all, no matter what, he was still another "perfect" Deliverer.
But the more that was the case, the less Stelle understood why it was necessary for the "Flame Reaver" to remain in such a painful position all this time.
Next, the different memoria showed scenes that were largely similar.
No matter which cycle's memories they were, sometimes the companion by his side was Mydei, sometimes Tribbie, sometimes someone else, and there was even little Ica.
The only thing that never changed was that, in the end, the only one standing before the Overflowing Chalice and carrying out the duty of Recreation was Phainon.
And at this stage, every one of them faced the threat of the Flame Reaver.
Or rather... they were driven into a dead end by the Flame Reaver.
When one particular memoria showed that only Phainon and little Ica remained before the Overflowing Chalice, the audience didn't even need to guess...
The others had probably already died at the hands of the Flame Reaver.
But even then, when Phainon prepared to protect little Ica, this adorable little creature that could only make "doo-doo" sounds still expressed its desire to buy time for Phainon to complete the Recreation.
At the end of this memoria... little Ica stood in front of Phainon and faced the enemy.
And little Ica's fate hardly needed to be said... Watching these scenes... an oppressive atmosphere began to spread.
...
: I'm seriously suffocating.
: No matter which side's Phainon we're talking about, this is fucking hell for him!!!
: This is even worse than hell! "Brothers killing each other" doesn't even begin to describe this feeling!
: I can't take it anymore. Flame Reaver, no, the original Phainon, what the hell did he see that made him become like this?!
: Can't they just communicate properly?! Waaaah! Stop killing each other, please stop!
: And the Phainon on the other side is suffering too, damn it!!
: Every single time, the Flame Reaver drives him all the way to the end, while one companion after another dies at the Flame Reaver's hands.
: As the number of cycles increases, there are fewer and fewer times when Phainon even has anyone left beside him!
: I don't even dare keep watching anymore. This is too cruel! MiHoYo, what the fuck did you eat to write a plot like this?! Holy shit!!
...
The definition of tragedy was probably a play, or a person's life, filled with misfortune, setbacks, blows, death, and other things humans feared and despised.
But if that were all there was to it, humans wouldn't enjoy watching tragedies.
Among those elements people despised, there were often corresponding things, the dazzling brilliance of humanity, or hope and other uplifting spirits and qualities.
It was just like comedy. The highest praise people could give a comedy was to say that it was actually a tragedy, capable of gradually sinking beneath the laughter.
People liked searching for tragedy within comedy, just as they liked searching for positive meaning within tragedy.
When a tragedy could only make people cry and despair, it could only be considered second-rate. But once something capable of helping people stand back up was hidden within those negative emotions of dejection, despair, and emptiness, that became the reason a tragedy could be called great.
At this very moment, as countless memoria unfolded, the embryonic form of that greatness had already begun to sprout.
Within this grand play, whether it was the Flame Reaver, or the countless Phainons and Chrysos Heirs trapped within the endless cycles, they were all sources of tragedy.
Any one of them alone was enough to make the audience feel overwhelming pain and despair.
Again and again, they slaughtered one another.
Again and again, they reached the same ending.
Previously, MiHoYo had spent three entire episodes laying the groundwork for all of this.
If the audience didn't know the stories behind these characters, if they weren't familiar with them and didn't love them, perhaps they wouldn't be suffering this much either.
And conversely, precisely because no matter how the memoria unfolded, no matter who ultimately stood before the Overflowing Chalice, the Chrysos Heirs' goal had never changed.
Recreation!
Even when they were driven into a dead end, with only little Ica remaining beside Phainon, they would still give everything they had to complete the Recreation.
All for Amphoreus's one and only hope. This alone would never change, no matter how many cycles they went through.
The more hellish the cycles became, the more the perseverance shining within that hell became the positive side corresponding to that immense suffering.
Yet the more they persevered, the more uplifting it became, the more painful the tragedy itself became.
The agony of tragedy and the inspiration of hope intertwined with one another.
Within the audience's hearts, they stepped on each other and climbed higher and higher, ensuring that this suffering would become endless.
The audience would even discover still sharper knives hidden within it on their own.
Previously, while watching the story of the "Flame Reaver," some viewers had imagined that if there were countless cycles, perhaps there might have been one where the Flame Reaver chose to hide inside the Membrance Maze and never leave, so that he wouldn't have to shoulder the responsibility of being a Deliverer again.
Although Phainon would surely blame himself and suffer if he did that, at least he could have lived out a relatively complete life.
But now, those cold memoria were using the stories of the later Phainons throughout the endless cycles to tell everyone beyond any doubt, no matter how many times the cycle repeated, no matter how many times everything was randomized, Phainon was still Phainon.
A Deliverer was still a Deliverer.
Whether it was a thousand times, ten thousand times, or countless times beyond that, his choice would never change.
The same was true for the "Flame Reaver."
No matter how many times that story within the Membrance Maze was repeated, in the end, he would always step out of that realm, become the Deliverer, and become... the Flame Reaver!
This was precisely how a person's character would determine their future fate!
...
: Fate! Fate! Damn this freaking fate!
: Holy crap! So-called fate isn't actually some vague, intangible thing at all. It's entirely determined by a person's personality!
: Just like Phainon. With his personality, as long as the circumstances don't change, no matter how many times the cycle repeats, the choices they make and the endpoint they reach are destined to be the same!
: I don't want to suddenly have an epiphany about something like this here! Waaaah! This hurts so much!!
: So the harder they struggle against fate, the more they'll ultimately drown in it. And what drowns them is precisely those brilliant qualities of humanity within themselves.
: To truly avoid their predetermined fate, they'd have to make choices that go against their own personalities. Mydei would have to abandon his glory and his people, Phainon would have to give up on saving the world, and Aglaea would have to abandon the Flame-Chase Journey. As long as they did that, they wouldn't head toward the same fate again! But they didn't! Not even once!!
: Holy shit!! Why did you guys have to suddenly figure this out now?! It hurts even more after hearing that!!
: Yeah, waaah... Even after tens of millions of cycles, the original Phainon remained the same as ever. And not once did the Phainon and Chrysos Heirs within those cycles choose to let go of what they stood for and take a different path.
: When you put a group of people like this into an environment like Amphoreus, the script of the story is inevitably going to become similar. There might be slight differences in the details, but the overall trajectory and ending are destined to be the same!
: That's why, while watching, we feel like fate is everywhere. Because once these people are gathered together, this is the path they will inevitably choose. There are no exceptions!
: That infinity symbol Amphoreus appears as in the universe represents fate's infinite cycle!
: If there aren't any variables, then this cycle will never reach an ending amid the tug-of-war between the Flame Reaver and the Phainons and Chrysos Heirs of each successive cycle. Unless the Chrysos Heirs' personalities completely change and they cease to be the Chrysos Heirs!
: But we all know that's impossible!
: Because they're the greatest Chrysos Heirs! Waaaaah!
: Damn you, miHoYo! I'm going to kill you!!!
: Fuck! You butcher every single character who appears! Then you throw all of them into the same hell and torture them endlessly, and while torturing them you still insist on showing us just how incredible they are!! The only reason they're suffering is because they're too incredible! Are you fucking devils?!!!
...
The fate represented by the prophecy.
After spanning three episodes.
At this moment, the audience finally understood it. There was some bullshit saying that went something like this:
People always learn to grow through suffering.
And so it was now. At the height of their agony, the audience came to understand the true nature of fate.
And then they went even crazier. The comments were filled entirely with viewers wailing madly, wishing they could storm straight into miHoYo's headquarters.
But the story was still continuing. And amid their pain, they would have to comprehend an even deeper suffering.
On screen.
Stelle was already completely surrounded by various forms of memoria. As the number of cycles represented by each piece of memoria grew larger and larger.
The number of scenes showing Phainon standing alone before the Overflowing Chalice also grew greater and greater.
This meant that, as the number of cycles increased, the threat posed by the Flame Reaver to the Chrysos Heirs also became increasingly severe.
In many cycles, every single Chrysos Heir had to sacrifice themselves just to safely deliver Phainon before the Overflowing Chalice.
The suffering audience couldn't understand how things had reached this state, neither could Stelle.
After she finished watching the final piece of memoria, the crushing psychological burden was already making it difficult for her to breathe.
Enough.
She wanted the truth! Not just these fragments!
"Lygus... Show me the final memory."
Stelle stared fixedly at the automaton who had been quietly waiting off to the side, her pupils brighter than ever before.
Within those beautiful golden eyes, Lygus saw something familiar, making him even more certain that she might very well become his colleague.
"Hehe, you really think you're prepared? Allow me to give you a warning most earnest: Once you see what these memories hide..."
Lygus bowed elegantly before giving one final reminder.
"Once you see what these memories hide... The world's course... will be forever irreversible."
His words were filled with solemnity.
Memory... Course... Stelle seized upon those two key words in her mind.
But at this moment, her patience had already been completely exhausted, and she didn't think deeply about them.
"Show me the final memory."
Stelle spoke each word clearly.
Lygus's laughter became unusually cheerful. He spread his arms in invitation, his tone growing increasingly excited.
"Very well. As you have made up your mind, let us bear witness together."
"As the sole audience of this eternal theater, I have been rapturously awaiting your arrival. And this too is the very reason I must show you everything."
"I believe that, since you've bathed in that Aeon's gaze,"
"You can make Amphoreus's frozen fate flow once again..."
Which Aeon? Destruction? Preservation? Or Remembrance?
Moreover, since Akivili was already dead, yet Stelle was indeed a member of the Trailblaze.
It could be said. There were at least four possibilities for who this title referred to when applied to Stelle.
Lygus didn't specify, and Stelle wasn't in the mood to investigate further.
She merely stared at the memoria crystal Lygus had summoned, then reached out and touched it.
The memoria unfolded. What appeared before her was still the scenery around the Overflowing Chalice.
But it was completely different from what she had seen before.
Because this time, she was part of it as well.
Beside the Overflowing Chalice, there stood memoria versions of Phainon and herself.
Behind the two of them, there was also a memoria version of Lygus.
Lygus looked at the version of himself within the memoria and chuckled.
"Feeling a bit lost? As you now see, this scene marks the final act of the drama "Amphoreus"..."
"The final Eternal Recurrence created by this man's hand, and the last one this world shall undergo."
"Behold. At the swordsman's side stands one he has sometimes called companion, other times comrade, that Nameless Hero absent from the annals of history-"
"She is the swordsman's ideal in his youth, the "Deliverer" that guided him resolutely onward through fantasy — And now, in the name of the "Nameless," she has become an essential and inseparable part of the epic of Amphoreus."
"And this time, under her guidance, what choice shall the hero make? Whither shall the fate of the world flow? And what is the ultimate truth of the nature of Amphoreus...?"
Lygus's voice rose and fell dramatically. His performance rivaled that of any herald upon the stage of a grand theater.
Everyone stared fixedly at the screen as Lygus spoke.
"There are many mysteries yet to be unwound. But, if I may, allow me to temporarily yield the stage to one far more fitting. Please, put your hands together and give a rousing round of applause for they who will reveal the answers, and bring about the final end of the 33550336th Flame-Chase Journey-"
As Lygus spoke his final sentence, his voice gradually lowered, like theater lights slowly dimming before the curtain rose.